Stretch marks are permanent

Richard P. Rand, MD answers: How do I get rid of stretch marks?

What works for stretch marks?  Is there any cream or lotion I can use?


Richard P. Rand, MD
13 months ago

Unless you can surgically remove them like in a tummy tuck, stretch marks are a permanent result of skin stretching more rapidly than its elastic fibers can tolerate.

The anatomy of a stretch mark explains why no treatments can cure them. They are a splitting of the deeper dermis layer of the skin while the outside epidermal layer remains intact. It is like splitting a tomato over a flame only in a stretch mark, it is the deeper layer that splits, not the outermost layer.

Lasers can help with the darker color when they are new but they don't eliminate the damaged skin, they just make it less conspicuous.

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